This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Plan 2024 Emerging Priorities project "Modelling adult abundance and habitat distribution of Maugean skate". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The Maugean skate (Zearaja maugeana) is listed as Endangered under Tasmania’s Threatened Species Protection Act and the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Its known population is small (~3,000 individuals, Macquarie Harbour, 2016) and highly restricted, having only been recorded in two isolated estuaries: Bathurst Harbour and Macquarie Harbour in south-western/western Tasmania. This constitutes one of the most limited distributions of any known extant elasmobranch. A Roadmap of Agreed Actions has been published by the Maugean skate recovery team. In this document, the recovery team agreed that Close Kin Mark Recapture (CKMR) be investigated as a priority action for determining historical abundance of the species in the harbour, and potentially as a complimentary monitoring tool going forward. The Commonwealth’s 2023 Conservation Advice for the Maugean skate has also identified this as a priority action. The CKMR method has been developed and operationalised for various finfish and elasmobranch species. The method uses next-generation sequencing methods to inform on the prevalence of closely related individuals (parent-offspring/half-siblings) within a set of sampled animals. This data is fed into statistical models of the population in order to obtain estimates of abundance of the breeding adults, adult survival rate, and given sufficiently informative data, population trend. CKMR will provide crucial independent estimates of the size of the Maugean skate spawning population in the Macquarie Harbour. This will be of significance for conservation decision processes which are ongoing and in determining monitoring options in the future. A secondary component of this project is to model the critical habitat distributions of the species. Maugean skate are thought to be impacted by low dissolved oxygen (DO2) in Macquarie Harbour. This is influenced by combinations of exogenous factors (industrial usage, manipulation of flow regimes from riverine inputs) and climatic / weather forcing events. Remediation trials involving the addition of DO2 are underway to determine if low DO2 conditions may be ameliorated using anthropogenic supplementation. However, a crucial missing element required to guide this process, is the linking of biophysical models of the harbour to observations of the conditions observed to be selected by the skate. This component of the project will combine synoptic biophysical predictions of the harbour with telemetry data from tagged Maugean skates which details the skates' selected temperature, depth and O2 conditions. These two information sources will be combined via habitat selection models - previously used to model habitat preferences of other species (e.g. Southern bluefin tuna) - to predict whether remediation, climate or other factors are likely to impact on the availability of selected skate habitat. Initial potential habitat maps will be generated for a hindcast period (2017-18), and for a forecast period based on models currently under development that simulate recent and evolving water quality in near-real time. This will enable recent and evolving maps of suitable skate habitats. Simulated habitat maps will be assessed against the known collective knowledge of skate habitat to identify critical habitat areas within Macquarie Harbour and inform future spatial and temporal sampling strategies. Outputs • High-quality DNA sequences of Maugean skate [sequencing data] • Hindcast maps (2017-18) of potential Maugean skate occupation [spatial data] • Recent and forecast (evolving) maps of potential Maugean skate occupation under different management scenarios [spatial data] • Estimates of spawning stock abundance of the Maugean skate from CKMR analysis [data contained in written report] • Final project report [written]

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Plan 2024 project "Enhancing monitoring approaches to evaluate the abundance, life history and critical habitats of the endangered Australian sea lion". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The Australian sea lion (ASL; Neophoca cinerea) is Australia’s only endemic pinniped. Populations have declined by more than 60% over the last 40 years to extremely low levels, leading to its endangered status. Known threats to the species include fisheries bycatch, disease, pollution, entanglement in marine debris, and climate change. Improving our understanding of the species’ abundance, life history and critical habitats is essential for evaluating these threats and guiding recovery actions but is challenging due to the species’ unique life-history and breeding biology, longevity, demersal foraging behaviour and occupancy of remote breeding habitat. This project aims to improve the monitoring and inform the management of Australian sea lions by developing cost-effective methods for acquiring abundance data from under-surveyed regions impacted by anthropogenic pressures. To do so, it will: • Apply drones to enhance monitoring at suitable breeding and haul-out sites • Develop efficient techniques to process and analyse demographic data so that survival and reproductive success estimates from a microchipped population at Seal Bay can be routinely updated; and • Continue to deploy underwater cameras on sea lions to identify and understand critical habitats and risks. Findings from these activities will underpin the National Recovery Team conservation efforts, in line with the Australian Government's Threatened Species Action Plan and Healthy Country plans. Outputs • Qualitative and qualitative spatial assessments of breeding sites from helicopter surveys in Recherche Archipelago [dataset] • Drone-collected photogrammetry, FLIR, thermal imaging and LiDAR data [dataset] • Demographic results from analysis of Seal Bay microchipping program [dataset] • Tracking data from sea lion-deployed tags: location, depth, time, temperature, light, acceleration [dataset] • Timestamped video footage from sea lion-deployed cameras [dataset] • Short non-technical summaries to distil the key findings and take-home messages [written] • Final project report [written]

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Plan 2024 project "Grey Nurse Shark aggregations". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) has been protected in Australian Commonwealth waters since 1996. Although historically distributed across southern Australia, in October 2001 the grey nurse shark was listed as two separate populations with different protection listings under the EPBC Act of 1999: Critically Endangered in eastern Australia, and Vulnerable in Western Australia. Grey nurse sharks (GNS) tend to aggregate at specific sites along migration routes. There are currently 19 identified key aggregation sites along the eastern seaboard. Recent observations indicate that this definition requires revision to account for factors such as seasonal movements and to be applicable to the Western Australian population. This project aims to collate existing information on key aggregation sites and ‘new’ sites where GNS have been found to gather (both in eastern and western Australia). This information will be used to refine the definition of key aggregation site and develop criteria to allow assessment of new sites. This project will also investigate potential sites in Victoria where the least amount of information is available. Outputs • Spatial information on key Grey Nurse Shark aggregation sites [dataset] • Final project report [written]